g to go with
me. We will be man and wife, you understand; so when I get to be king
you will be----"

"I? Queen?"

She laughed. Involuntarily she rose and trampled to pieces all the
kingdoms that Walter had just laid at her feet.

"But--won't you be my wife?"

"Oh, you boy! How did you get such nonsense into your head? You are
still a child!"

"Will you wait then till I'm grown up? Will you let me be your friend?"

"Certainly! Only you mustn't think of that nonsense--not that you may
not go to Africa later. Why not? Many people go on journeys. Formerly
there lived a carpenter near us, and he went to the Haarlem with his
whole family. But--marrying!"

She laughed again. It pained Walter. The poor boy's first proposal
was turning out badly.

Suddenly Femke became serious.

"I know that you are a good boy; and I think a great deal of you."

"And I!" cried Walter. "Femke, I have thought of you all the time--when
I was sick--in my fever--I don't know what I thought of in my fever,
but I think it must have been you. And I talked to the picture I
painted for you as if it were you; and that picture answered like you
and looked like you. I was Kusco and Telasco, and you were Aztalpa,
the daughter of the sun. Tell me, Femke, may I be your friend?"

The girl reflected a moment; and in her pure, innocent heart
she felt the desire to do good. Was that seventeen-year-old girl
conscious of the influence that Walter's childish soul exerted upon
her? Scarcely. But she wanted to give him a less cruel answer.

"Certainly, certainly you shall be my friend. But--but----"

She was hunting for some excuse that would not hurt him, and still let
him see the difference in their ages. He had grown during his illness,
to be sure, but still--she could have carried him on her arm. And he
had dreamed of rescuing her from a fire!

"My friend, yes. But then you must do everything that I require."

"Everything, everything! Tell me quick what I can do for you."

It was painful for the girl. She didn't know what she should require;
but she was under the necessity of naming something. She had always
heard that it was good for children to study hard. What if she should
spur him on to do that?

"Listen, Walter. Just for fun I told my mother that you were the best
in school."

"I?" cried Walter abashed.

"Study hard and be the first in school inside the next three months,"
said Femke to the conqueror of continents, unaware of the sarca